The two biggest international sports events in the UAE neatly bracket the start and finish of the “winter” sports calendar here: The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November and the Dubai World Cup in March.

The former involves Formula One race cars and the latter horses. In each case, people are trying to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible.

Abu Dhabi would have to concede that their race is not particularly “more special” than any other F1 race.

Dubai, however, would suggest its equine jamboree is the biggest day in global horse racing, and they probably would be right for 27 million reasons — that being the prize money showered on the sport in a matter of six hours today.

Horse-racing already has been described as a dying industry, even by those inside it, and it might well be dead already if not for the enthusiasm of one very wealthy man, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, ruler of Dubai.

Dubai has been hosting the World Cup since 1996, when it was a curiosity in much of the West, where railbirds generally wondered why the U.S.-based horse Cigar would go so far to run a race as well as risk his winning streak.

The Dubai World Cup has done nothing but get bigger since, with a big step being the opening of Meydan Racecourse in 2010. When visitors come to Dubai and go away tut-tutting about conspicuous spending and/or degenerate expats, Meydan Racecourse often is mentioned early and often.

How ornate/elaborate it might be is open to discussion, but if you are inside the horses industry, you probably recognize this: Meydan is the only major track to open in recent history.

Also, the Dubai World Cup keeps upping the cash rewards. This year, it was $27.25 million for nine races, compared to the $25.2 million for 14 races at the U.S.-based Breeder’s Cup, which was the richest equine event at one time, but no longer is.

What also makes the Dubai World Cup particularly interesting? You can’t actually bet on the races. Not in this country, where gambling is illegal. Still, about 20,000 people turned out for the races.

However you cut it, the Dubai World Cup is a big deal, with the best horses, jockeys and trainers from all over the world descending upon the city for a weekend (or more) of fun and racing, and we covered it to death. Nine pages of preview coverage in today’s sports section of The National. Another seven in the Sunday paper.

My favorite stories tend to be the ones about the race-goers, and their ridiculous sartorial choices, particularly in the realm of hats.

We sent our cricket correspondent, Osman Samiuddin, out to cover this crucial aspect of the race, and that story is here, and the mass of our coverage can be found on this topics page.

The biggest story was the biggest race, the $10 million, the Dubai World Cup (at the Dubai World Cup; yes, a little confusing), and the day’s host, Sheikh Mohammed, and his stable, Godolphin, won that with his horse Monterosso.

(By the by: The Breeder’s Cup Classic, the biggest race at the Breeder’s Cup, is worth $5 million.)

Anyway, a big event. And for those of us in sports, it is a dramatic and almost wistful end to that fraction of the year when outsiders come to the UAE and contest their events, whether it be horses, cars, golfers, tennis players or even cricketers.

The realization, both inside and outside the UAE, is that the place is simply too hot to stage international sports events or expect visitors in numbers, from April until mid-November. That’s just how it is. The biggest events have come … and gone … and the biggest was the Dubai World Cup.